"Huh, really? I've never met an autistic person before."

"Trevor!" That was Juri's voice... I froze immediately.

"Hey, Julie," Trevor responded with a wave.

"Did you meet the-" Juri stopped mid-sentence when she caught sight of me. "...new girl!" she shouted, pointing at me.

"H-hello, again," I waved slowly.

"Oh? Do you two know each other?" Trevor questioned as he glanced between me and Juri.

"Nope! Ran into her in the bathroom, though," Juri responded. "Speaking of which, why did you run off so suddenly?"

"I-I... umm..." I glanced around. There had to be somewhere I could escape to.

"She was looking for me," Trevor interjected. "I'm her guide and tutor."

Juri scoffed. "Oh god, they assigned Trevor to be your guide? I bet it's been a total snooze-fest."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Trevor put his hands on his hips and stuck out his elbows.

Juri looked straight at Trevor with a bored expression. "I mean you're being a-f."

"I-if I'm boring, then why do you hang out with me?"

"Cause you're one of the few people here who are actually nice." Juri waved Trevor off and took a few steps towards me. "Anyway, you can have him as your tutor, but if you really want a tour around the school, I'll be a much better guide."

"If you want to be a guide, then you should have been the one that signed up to help new students." Trevor, who was nearly a foot taller than Juri, towered over her, attempting to be imposing.

Juri rose her hand, touched Trevor's nose, and then pushed him backwards. "Screw that, you think I have time to tutor people? I've got four sisters at home. I'm lucky if I can even do my own homework, let alone help someone else."

I had been trying my hardest to stifle a laugh the whole time, but seeing Juri and Trevor being so playful with one another just made me start laughing.

Both of them turned their heads towards me. "What's so funny?" Juri questioned.

I shook my head. "J-just you two," I spoke as I tried to breathe. "You're like a cute couple."

Trevor and Juri turned so red I thought steam was going to come out their ears. "M-me like him?!" Juri shouted.

"No way I'd like her!" Trevor shouted.

It was like a classic anime, and that only made me laugh more.

Trevor and Julie took me around the rest of the school after that. They showed me where all the classrooms were and all of their favorite spots to hang out. I met a few of their friends, including a particular girl. She was close in age to Juri and had almond-toned skin. Her hair was dark brown and she had green eyes. She was also roughly my height.

Though, I must admit that most of that was things I noticed later. The first thing I noticed, as ashamed as I am to say it, was the size of her chest. My gaze was quickly turned away from that, though, when she raised her right arm to wave, and I noticed the ceiling light shine off her arm. I quickly glanced to her other arm, noticing how the light did not shine off of it. Her right arm was fake, and while it did match her skin tone, it's silicone exterior was impossible to miss.

"This is Alison Burke," Juri spoke up. "They're a close friend of mine."

Wait, they? Had I missed her mentioning someone else?

Alison seemed to notice my confusion and she smiled. "Don't worry, you didn't miss someone." She put her real hand on her chest. "I am non-binary. If you're not familiar with that term, it means I don't identify as either male or female. Because of that, I use 'they' and 'them' as my pronouns. I won't get upset if you use 'she' or 'her', but I would prefer if you didn't."

Non-binary, I had never heard of that before. Still, if a person could be born as one sex but actually be the other, I didn't see any reason why someone couldn't be in-between or even neither. It did make me wonder how that felt, though. Being born male but actually being female made me feel as if I was in the wrong body. Did Alison feel that way, too?

Alison rose her, or rather their, right arm up. "Oh, you probably noticed this, too, I assume?"

Ah! I hadn't wanted to bring it up, but they had read my mind. I nodded silently.

"You're probably thinking 'Is that a fake arm or does this person have a weird skin condition?' The answer is, yes, it's prosthetic." Alison lifted their sleeve, showing the part where the small nub of their real arm and the prosthetic came together. "Left leg is like this, too. My jeans cover it pretty well, but I'm not exactly trying to hide it either." They slid their sleeve back down. "I have a congenital limb defect. I was born with no arm and... not much of a leg, let's put it that way."

That sounded extremely unpleasant.

"So, yeah, I wear a prosthetic arm and leg, but don't feel too bad about me. The arm I have on right now is what is called a 'body-powered arm prosthesis'. It can't really do much of anything except bend at the elbow and wiggle the fingers a bit." Alison moved their arm up and down and bent the elbow. "I can control it with a few muscles, but it's not meant for any major usage. It works well enough for school, and that's all that really matters."

"Does that mean you have other arms?" I blurted out. I then immediately covered my mouth as I felt as if I had just said something horrible.

Yet, much to my surprise, Alison laughed. "I do, actually. My other arm is a myoelectric arm prosthesis. It uses actual electrical impulses from my muscles to move it. It allows for far more fine-tuned movements of my elbow and hands. The issue is... well, it straight up looks like a big metal robot hand. It also requires power, meaning it needs to be plugged in every once in a while to charge. Not exactly the most ideal situation when you're spending eight hours at school."

"Alison!" I heard someone shout out. When I looked up, I saw a guy with blonde hair that was dressed in a purple button-up and jeans.

"And this is my boyfriend, John," Alison spoke up as she waved to the guy. "John, this is the new student. Her name is Alexis."

"Hey there!" John smiled widely. "I see you've met the love of my life."

Alison rolled her eyes. "Please, John, we're kids. For all we know, we'll break up tomorrow."

John gasped dramatically. "You would break up with me? Oh, the shame!" He put the back of his hand to his head and pretended to faint.

Alison scoffed. "If you keep acting like that, I just might."

John practically fell to his knees. "Oh, say it ain't so, Babe. Say it ain't so."

"You've been watching '80s movies too much again."

"I can't help it, they're so different from modern media. It's like looking into another world." John jumped to his feet. "Anyway, I got to show you this absolutely hilarious picture that Phil sent me." John pulled out his phone and began to scroll.

Alison chuckled and pat John on the back. "You can show me on the way to class." They looked up at me. "I'll see you around, Alexis."

As Alison walked off, they waved to me, and I waved back. "She seemed nice," I spoke up.

"'They'," Juri retorted. "Got to keep your pronouns straight."

"'They', right."

After a bit more, Juri split from our group as she headed off to her own classes. I followed Trevor to our first class, then our second. Before I knew it, we were down three classes and headed to lunch.

The cafeteria was, as you might guess, noisy from the chatter of a hundred different students. "You probably already know, but the school does provides you with $10 worth of food for lunch that is covered by your intuition," Trevor spoke as we got into line. "However, you can purchase additional food if you'd like. Some food also straight up costs more than $10, which they will then deduct and make you pay the rest. And let me tell you, Ms. Clacket is very strict. I had to help a kid out the other day because his lunch was two cents over budget."

I grimaced. "Yeesh... that bad, huh?"

"Let's just say... some of us wanted to create a sort of 'penny charity' where other students can just reach over and grab a couple pennies to pay for their meals. Only reason we haven't is cause the school won't let us. 'It could encourage stealing!'" Trevor scoffed. "They really think taking a couple cents from a small bin is going to lead someone to a life of crime? Please. They just want to get away with giving out as little food as possible."

We made our way through the line, grabbed some food, and sat down at a table. A few moments later, Juri sat down with us, a big grin on her face. "So, how's your first day been?" she asked.

"Fine," I responded. "Trevor's been a great guide, and he's helped out a lot. Doesn't seem like I've stood out too much, either."

"Not wanting to stand out, I take it?" Juri picked up her sandwich and took a big bite out of it, like a huge bite. I stared in shock.

"Not particularly, no," I responded after a moment had passed. "I'm autistic, so not exactly fond of... big groups or anything..."

"Autistic, huh?" Juri stared at me. "I had a friend back at my old school that I was pretty sure was autistic. Never really had reason to bring it up." She tilted her head. "Sorry, it's been a long day, what did you say your name was again?"

"Alexis..." I responded.

"Alexis... I see..." Juri looked down towards her sandwich, then set it on her plate. "Alexis... what?"

"E-excuse me?"

"Your last name. You know Trevor's and mine. At least, I assume Trevor told you his." Juri turned and seemed to glare at Trevor.

"Yes, I did tell her, not like it actually matters if I did or not." Trevor scoffed. "Why are you so weirdly picky about this?"

"Because its proper to introduce yourself in full! You Americans have this weird habit of just being like 'Hey, I'm Steve.' Us Japanese do introductions properly. Surname than first name, because its impolite to even use someone's first name unless you know them really well."

"That's just how you do it," Trevor retorted. "It's not impolite to do it the way we do it. You're just still hung up on the fact that it took you half a year to find out my last name, so you wouldn't call me by any name."

"Because that's how it's supposed to be done!"

"U-umm... i-it's okay, really," I spoke up, waving my arms frantically. "I really don't mind if you just call me 'Alexis'."

Juri turned to me and grabbed my hand. "Please, just tell me your name."

There was something off here, and I didn't know what. I did remember Juri insisting on referring to me by my last name for a short while as a kid, but I had never seen her so desperate about learning a person's last name. She hadn't even questioned me about it when we first were introduced or during the tour. Why was she so insistent now?

I sighed. "Perkins, that's my last name."

Juri smiled. "See? That wasn't so hard." She sat down properly in her seat and took another huge bite of her sandwich.

And then, after that, she was weirdly completely silent for the rest of lunch.

When lunch period did end, Juri waved with a smile and headed off for her next class. Just what was going through her mind at that time?

The rest of the school day went by without incident. Weirdly, I didn't see Juri at all the rest of the day, not even after school was over. I almost felt sad by that, yet at the same time, I felt weirdly happy.

Auntie had come to pick me up. "I just wanted to be sure you got home fine," she said as we walked back home together. Sure, Auntie could have driven to come pick me up, "but it'd be a waste of gas," was how she put it. I didn't mind, though, it gave me and her a chance to talk about how my day had been. All-in-all, for a first day of school, it had been a good day.

Or so I thought.

Juri rummaged through her room. Books, papers, and many other things had been scattered across her floor. Whatever she was hunting for, none of those things had been it.

"Care to explain why you're making such a mess of our room?" Aimi, one of Juri's sisters, questioned as she stood in the doorway, her arms folded across her chest. While at home, Juri's family usually chose to speak in either Japanese or Chinese. This was due to her family's mixed heritage, but also because Juri's parents weren't good at English.

"Because I know it's here somewhere. I was adamant about keeping it because it has his picture in it," Juri responded from under the bed. There was a loud BANG as she hit her head on the underside. "Fucking shit balls!" she exclaimed in English.

"Language, Juri." Aimi remarked.

"YES! I FOUND IT!" Juri shouted. She scurried out from under the bed, holding a thin red book. The logo of "Harlingen Academy" was displayed proudly on the cover. Juri hopped onto her bed and began quickly flipping through the pages. It took only a few moments for her to find what she was looking for. "Yes, right here!"

Aimi stepped over to the bed and leaned over to look at the book. "Looking at that boy again? I thought you stopped doing that years ago."

"I think I saw him today. He was at our school, but he wasn't a boy."

Aimi raised an eyebrow, then lookd up at Juri. "The boy... wasn't a boy?"

"The boy was a girl," Juri responded, looking up at Aimi.

Aimi dropped her face into her palm. "Juri, you realize how stupid that sounds, right? Boys are boys and girls are girls. You're 16, you should know this by now."

"But I'm serious! He was a girl, I'm sure of it!" Juri protested.

Aimi rolled her eyes and walked away. "Whatever you say, Juri. Please clean all of this up when you're done staring at your boy."

Juri watched as Aimi left, then looked down at the book in her hands. "I don't understand... what happened to you?"